by Daniel Boffey and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels, Pip on 2018-05-24 18:34 (#3QYDE)

Senior official involved in talks says EU will not negotiate under threat, after a fraught week in BrusselsThe EU has accused the British government of “chasing a fantasy” and warned that it will not negotiate under threat, after a fraught week of Brexit talks in Brussels that have raised serious concerns about the future of the negotiations.The whole approach of the UK government to the discussions was castigated by a senior EU official involved, who further warned that the bloc would not be forced into positions that were against its interests. Continue reading...

George Ormond accused of sexually abusing 19 boys over 25-year periodTeenage boys in Newcastle United’s youth football teams were sexually abused by a coach who was working for the club as a “driver, kit man and gopher”, a jury has been told.George Ormond is alleged to have abused boys while they were staying at a hotel organised by Newcastle United, the prosecuting barrister, Sharon Beattie, told Newcastle crown court. Continue reading...

Washington and Pyongyang were talking at cross purposes, and the debacle began and ended with gut decisions made by TrunpThe short, turbulent history of the Trump-Kim summit, from its surprise announcement in March to its abrupt cancellation on Thursday, is the chronicle of a trainwreck foretold.The debacle had been predicted by just about anyone with an experience of negotiating with North Korea, and experts who repeatedly warned that Washington and Pyongyang were talking at cross purposes. Continue reading...

In an edited extract from One Last Spin, Drew Rooke explores one of the world’s most intense, accessible and ruinous forms of gambling: Australia’s poker machinesTim Freedman, the lead singer of the Australian rock band The Whitlams, turns heads when he enters the Coopers hotel in Newtown, in inner Sydney. Wearing an open brown-leather jacket over a plain collared shirt, dress pants and leather shoes, he looks more like a teacher than a rock star. He has thick eyebrows, short greying hair, wrinkles beneath his brown eyes, and a thin band of stubble from ear to ear. As he takes a seat across the table by the front window, the bartender nudges his colleague and points in our direction.

Federal investigation finds emergency braking system was not enabled in SUV that hit Arizona pedestrianA federal investigation into a self-driving Uber SUV that hit and killed a pedestrian in March has found that the vehicle’s emergency braking system was disabled.The preliminary report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Thursday that while the vehicle’s guidance system had spotted the woman about six seconds before hitting her, emergency braking manoeuvres were not enabled in order to “reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior”. Continue reading...

Head of the Montana Democratic Party said Gianforte has never owned up to lying to the police or the public about the assaultThe head of the Montana Democratic party on Thursday asked for a congressional ethics investigation into whether Republican representative Greg Gianforte lied to the police and the public when he assaulted a reporter last year.The request by the party’s executive director, Nancy Keenan, comes exactly one year after Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs said Gianforte “body slammed” him for asking a question the day before Gianforte won a special election for Montana’s only US House seat. Continue reading...

Questions about the Labour leader’s republican views dominated his trip to Belfast. But Brexit is the key question for Northern Irish politics nowNorthern Ireland was a defining issue for Jeremy Corbyn during his long career as a backbencher. Mr Corbyn the backbencher was a republican supporter. He backed a united Ireland and he prominently identified himself on several occasions with Sinn Féin, with which the Provisional IRA was entwined. He voted against the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement on the grounds that it strengthened the border between the north and the south. He was consistently outside the Labour party mainstream, which favoured a generally bipartisan approach on Northern Ireland. Nevertheless he voted in favour of the 1998 Good Friday agreement on the grounds that it offered the hope of peace and reconciliation across the divide.As leader of the Labour party, Mr Corbyn has been more circumspect about the Irish issue. Thursday’s visit to Belfast was his first since his election in 2015. The visit was preceded by a now familiar burst of press indignation after his spokesman confirmed that Mr Corbyn continues to support Irish unification, while stressing that he does so within the framework of the 1998 agreement. The agreement says a united Ireland can only be achieved by the separate and concurrent votes of the two parts of Ireland and that, until this happens, the union of Northern Ireland with Britain is legitimate. But Mr Corbyn’s past record inevitably allowed DUP unionist MPs to taunt him this week with being unwilling to condemn IRA atrocities or meet their victims. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s meeting was all about grabbing plaudits for his over-sized ego rather than a serious effort to achieve peace on the Korean peninsulaThe commemorative summit coin has just been minted, but the peace efforts are already spent. Donald Trump’s decision to call off a June meeting with Kim Jong-un appears as hastily made and ill-considered as his decision to hold it. Predictably, it seems to have come without warning to – never mind consultation with – US ally South Korea, which had brought the parties together. Seasoned North Korea-watchers had warned the meeting might never happen, since the chasm between the sides, particularly over what denuclearisation means, was too vast to cross quickly or easily. The US’s lack of preparation, coordination or clarity on goals and how to approach them made prospects of progress still poorer.In contrast, Mr Trump seemed to believe the Nobel peace prize was one cosy chat away. Asked whether he deserved it, he modestly replied that “everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,” adding that he was focusing on getting talks “finished”. Well, they are finished now. The cancellation may have been partially pre-emptive, since the administration says North Korea had not responded to logistical queries in recent days. Mr Trump held the North responsible, thanks to the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a statement that said it was down to the US whether the countries met in a meeting room or at a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown” and attacked Mike Pence, the vice-president. There are already attempts to blame China, suggesting Xi Jinping has encouraged Mr Kim to take a harsher stance. But in truth responsibility lies with Mr Trump and those around him. North Korea is a loathsome regime, but it has been consistent. Not so the US. Continue reading...

by Peter Beaumont and Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Kharto on 2018-05-24 17:12 (#3QY6D)

Noura Hussein, whose case has been taken up by Naomi Campbell and Emma Watson, vows to help other women forced to marryThe lawyers for a young Sudanese woman sentenced to death for killing her husband as he tried to rape her have formally appealed the ruling as a petition calling for her to be spared reached a million signatures.The legal team working on behalf of 19-year-old Noura Hussein, whose case has become an international cause celebre, had until Thursday to file an appeal to the death sentence handed down by a Sudanese court 15 days ago. Continue reading...

I’m adamantly pro-choice, but was ambivalent about liberalising UK laws. The Irish referendum has changed all thatThey came from Los Angeles, from Bangkok, from Sydney, from Buenos Aires; from all four corners of the globe. One woman said her plane ticket was a birthday present from her boyfriend, who knew how much it meant to her. Others are funded by student unions, family whip-rounds, expats who have been away too long to take part. Young Irish women and men are coming home to vote in Ireland’s abortion referendum, many wearing their hearts on the sleeves of their repeal jumpers. They swap knowing glances in airports, proudly tweeting and Instagramming as they go. The #HomeToVote phenomenon is an extraordinarily moving, powerful sight. For what cause would you fly halfway round the world and back again? Only one that cuts to the heart of who you are, how you seek to live.Repealing the eighth amendment would be seismic enough, since it’s what guarantees the unborn a right to life even when the mother has been raped, is practically a child herself, or is carrying a wanted baby with such severe abnormalities it cannot survive. But this referendum has become a public test of so much more; of a woman’s place in society more generally, of a scandal-ridden Catholic church’s moral authority, even of shifting dynamics between the sexes in the #TimesUp era. Continue reading...

Hayat Elsanosi said her family lost faith in the UK after Fathia Ali Ahmed Elsanosi died in fireThe sister of a Sudanese teacher who came to the UK as a refugee and died in Grenfell Tower has told the public inquiry into the disaster: “Our trust in this country has been destroyed.”Hayat Elsanosi said her sister, Fathia Ali Ahmed Elsanosi, came to London and lived on the 23rd floor of the tower after her husband, who was in the military, was killed in suspicious circumstances. Continue reading...

by Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent on 2018-05-24 15:48 (#3QXYH)

Number of Romanian nationals living in UK in 2017 estimated to be 411,000, up 25% on 2016There are now more Romanians living in the UK than there are Irish nationals or Indians, official figures reveal.Romania has overtaken the Republic of Ireland and India to move from fourth to second most-common non-British nationality in the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found. Continue reading...

Jose Miguel Arenas Beltrán’s jail sentence for ‘glorifying terrorism’ had caused outcryA Spanish court has issued an international arrest warrant for a rapper who is thought to have fled the country to avoid jail for songs that threatened a politician, glorified terrorism and insulted the crown.

The decision on proposed $1.18bn deal underscores rising wariness of Chinese firms buying up assets in western countriesCanada has blocked a proposed C$1.51bn ($1.18bn) takeover of construction company Aecon by a Chinese state builder on national security grounds, underscoring rising wariness of Chinese firms buying up assets in western countries.Aecon’s takeover by overseas investment and financing arm of China Communications Construction Co Ltd was scheduled to close in February. But this was delayed after Canada extended a national security review. Continue reading...

Two Columbine-obsessed teenagers stockpiled bomb-making materials, court heardTwo teenage boys have been found guilty of plotting to kill pupils and teachers at their North Yorkshire school after developing an obsession with the Columbine massacre.

Harry Jacobs established a studio in Stockwell, south London, where he became a renowned photographer to the Caribbean community for decadesIf you find yourself in a south London front room, you may see a photograph on the sideboard, or in an ornate cardboard frame pinned to the wall, showing family members standing in front of a bucolic backdrop and behind an oversized basket of flowers. The photo, one of approximately 60,000, was taken by my grandfather, Harry Jacobs, some time between the late 1950s and 1999. Continue reading...

Former treasurer of People’s party jailed for fraud and party handed non-criminal fineA former treasurer of Spain’s ruling party has suffered a major blow after one of its former treasurers was jailed for 33 years for fraud and money laundering, and the party itself has been found to have profited from an illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme, in a case that has become emblematic of political corruption in the country.Luis Bárcenas, once a close ally of the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, was sentenced to prison for his part in the conspiracy and fined €44m (£38.5m), while the People’s party (PP) was fined €240,000 after judges at Spain’s highest criminal court ruled that it had benefited from the racket. Continue reading...

Investigation points to Russian missile in the shooting down of aircraft over Ukraine in 2014Investigators have said the missile that shot down flight MH17 in 2014 over eastern Ukraine came from Russia. Specifically, it originated with the 53rd anti-aircraft brigade based in the western city of Kursk. The evidence supporting this conclusion was “legally convincing” and would stand up in court, they said. Continue reading...

Love Both campaign is chasing down the undecideds before Friday’s referendumThey wear bright pink hi-vis jackets and talk passionately about human rights. Many of them are young women; some are students in ripped jeans, others professionals in suits. There’s barely a priest in sight.This is the anti-abortion army out on the streets of Ireland, chasing down every undecided vote in Friday’s referendum on abortion. In the final days of the campaign they were going door-to-door, handing out leaflets at train stations and in shopping centres, touring radio and television studios, and bombarding social media with their anti-abortion message.

Pyongyang claims to have dismantled its only known nuclear test site, with journalists witnessing the explosionsNorth Korea claims to have dismantled its only known nuclear test site, detonating explosives and collapsing its entrances in front of international television crews in a highly symbolic move.

Zak Bolland and David Worrall were found guilty after torching house in Walkden, Greater ManchesterA jury has convicted three people over a petrol bomb attack that killed four children as they slept in their home.Zak Bolland, 23, who launched the fatal attack after being involved in a petty feud with the victims’ 17-year-old brother Kyle Pearson, was convicted of four counts of murder at Manchester crown court. Continue reading...

A Russian prankster duo, Alexei Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, known by their monikers Lexus and Vovan, appear to have gained access to the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, in an 18-minute phone call. Pretending to be the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, one of the pranksters asks for advice on how to deal with Vladimir Putin, and for information on Britain’s response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury Continue reading...

Judges overturn earlier acquittal of Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, from SydneyAn Australian woman has been sentenced to death in Malaysia after a court of appeal found her guilty of smuggling crystal meth.Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54, was found with more than one kilo of crystal methamphetamine on her at Kuala Lumpur airport in 2014, before she was due to board a flight to Melbourne. Continue reading...

Sabrina Kouider and Ouissem Medouni had accused Sophie Lionnet of being in league with Mark WaltonA couple have been found guilty of killing their French nanny over an obsession with a founding member of Boyzone before burning her body on a bonfire in their garden.Sabrina Kouider, 35, and Ouissem Medouni, 40, built a warped fantasy around the pop music mogul Mark Walton and accused Sophie Lionnet of being in league with him. Continue reading...

The assistant secretary of the agriculture department, Narelle Clegg, breaks down while describing ‘dreadful’ footageThe assistant secretary of the agriculture department, Narelle Clegg, broke down during a Senate estimates hearing while describing the conditions on a live export ship that led to the deaths of 2,400 sheep.The sheep began to die on day 15 of a voyage in August to the Middle East on the Awassi Express after a sudden surge in temperatures, Clegg said. There were 900 sheep deaths in one day and hundreds more in the days that followed. Distressing footage of the conditions on board the ship were released in April. Continue reading...

International team say evidence shows missile that brought down flight four years ago came from a Russia-based military unitDutch investigators say they have uncovered hard evidence that a Russian army missile system fired the missile that shot down flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014. All 298 people onboard were killed. Continue reading...

Report finds Australians using private hospitals less while admissions to public hospitals are risingEight per cent of public hospital admissions for surgery and 18% of emergency department admissions were funded by private health insurance in 2016-17.An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, Admitted patient care 2016–17: Australian hospital statistics, also found that people were using private hospitals less while admissions to public hospitals were rising. Overnight private hospital stays fell by an average of 0.9% per capita, the report shows. Continue reading...

UK’s former chief EU diplomat Sir Ivan Rogers takes aim at PM’s Brexit strategy in speechBritain must face reality on post-Brexit trade rather than continue the “buccaneering blather” of hard Brexiters, the UK’s former chief EU diplomat Sir Ivan Rogers has said.Rogers, the former chief Brussels adviser to both David Cameron and Theresa May, took aim at the prime minister’s Brexit strategy in a forensic speech on Wednesday, but also criticised the plans of both hardline remainers and leavers, calling them “bluntly, delusional”. Continue reading...

Brexit horror stories – like the ex-mayor of Ipswich denied citizenship – remind me why we’ve returned to the NetherlandsWhen I moved back to the Netherlands this summer after six lovely years in Britain, I knew I was going to miss the place and that every now and then I would wonder if I had made the right decision. Everybody who voluntarily moves countries goes through this, and knows that these doubts can keep you awake all night.Related: Ex-mayor of Ipswich denied citizenship after almost 40 years in UK Continue reading...

Despite vanishing sea ice and shorter winters, Labrador’s polar bear population is among the healthiest in the world – and it could be thanks to the harp sealsGuido Rich, 28, an Inuit hunter from Rigolet, Labrador, brings his Ski-Doo to a careful stop on the sea ice, mindful of the precious cargo it hauls: the body of an 800lb male polar bear. It takes Rich and two other men to roll the animal off the sled and on to the ice, while his wife and young children watch.His sister, Natasha Pottle, who shot the bear the night before, hands her brother the plastic bags used to store liver, hair and fat samples that will be sent away for lab testing. The animal will provide valuable information for Labrador’s biologists, a small windfall for his family and meat for the community. Rich has barely begun cutting into the hide when a parade of people from the village start arriving to take pictures, offer observations or just watch respectfully. Continue reading...

Vice foreign minister says nation will not ‘beg the US for dialogue’ and threatens America will ‘taste an appalling tragedy’North Korea cast further doubt on a planned summit between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and Donald Trump, warning that Pyongyang could make the US “taste an appalling tragedy”.Related: North Korea must disarm before any economic relief, says Mike Pompeo Continue reading...

Full funeral rites from the monks of Bangkok’s Wat Krathum Suea Pla temple used to be for humans only – until a new and lucrative market emergedFou Fou always liked the good things in life. The pomeranian puppy had “a heart of gold” and a taste for expensive grilled pork. Varunthip Manthin loved the tiny dog as much as any of her sons.When she discovered him dead in the road having been hit by a motorbike, she was inconsolable. Despite her grief Manthin knew one thing: she would give him a funeral worthy of her own child. Continue reading...

In a country where snakebite treatment is costly, hard to come by and often inadequate, Rashid Chiti feared the worst when his daughter was bitten by a black mamba. Now the World Health Assembly is about to pass a resolution that might finally boost funding and research for what is a widespread problem

London gangster Sidney Cugullere and brother Reg snatched trophy from display case in Westminster church hall before ransom bid, claims Reg’s sonA London gangster and his brother were behind the notorious theft of the World Cup trophy just months before the 1966 tournament in England, it has been claimed.

Former guerrilla group member Gustavo Petro rides wave of enthusiasm to second place in the polls, despite country’s conservative traditionThousands of people had gathered in Bogotá’s historic Plaza de Bolívar. Some waved banners, others drank beer and danced as a musician from the Caribbean coast played on stage.Ahead of the first round of presidential elections this weekend, they were waiting to see the man they hope will defy expectations – and buck Colombia’s habit of voting in candidates from the right. Continue reading...

Campaigners use alternative platforms to promote message on news sites and gamesAnti-abortion campaigners have sidestepped Google’s ban on online adverts relating to the referendum in Ireland on Friday, so as to promote their message on popular websites.This May the tech company banned paid messages relating to the referendum from appearing on its services, which dominates many aspects of online advertising. Continue reading...

Defence secretary to announce that £850m system providing protection for UK’s aircraft carriers is now operationalA new missile system to provide protection for the UK’s two aircraft carriers has entered into service, defence secretary Gavin Williamson is due to announce on Thursday.The Sea Ceptors, developed at a cost of around £850m and deployed aboard Type 23-frigates, will offer a protective shield against missile attacks for the two carriers. HMS Queen Elizabeth is undergoing sea trials and HMS Prince of Wales is scheduled to be handed over to the Royal Navy in 2019. Continue reading...

Farrow says he ‘can no longer stay silent’ about accusations made by his sister and claims she was coerced into making themWoody Allen and Mia Farrow’s adopted son, Moses Farrow, on Wednesday defended his father from allegations of sexual assault made by his sister.In a nearly 5,000-word post, Moses elaborated further on claims he had made in previous interviews that his mother was physically abusive to him and her other children and that she coerced her daughter Dylan into accusing Allen of assault. Continue reading...

A Labour MEP holds up a funny sign, the SNP’s man frets over free wine and Ukip’s Gerard Batten hones his Partridge-esque victimhood. It’s tragic, comic and teeth-grindingly frustratingThe European parliament is “one of the most misunderstood institutions in the world”, argues Carry on Brussels, a fly-on-the-wall documentary that exists in a kind of paradox. Had more effort been made to explain exactly what MEPs do prior to 2016, then Brexit voters might not have been so convinced of their uselessness; then again, a film about an institution running smoothly and fairly doesn’t pack a sufficient dramatic punch. So here we are, fiddling while Brussels burns – for the UK, at least. Director Christian Trumble spins comedy and tragedy into a watchable, if at times teeth-grindingly frustrating three-part series that pulls off a remarkably balanced portrait of seven MEPs from across the political spectrum, all working to very different ends.This first episode sets out its W1A-ish tone – we hear that SNP MEP Alyn Smith has booked “the third-floor coffee lounge” for a charity mixer, and he grumbles that Ukip aren’t mingling and are only there for the free wine – primarily by concentrating on the most embattled of the bunch. Seb Dance, a young Labour MEP, is notorious for holding up a sign reading: “He’s lying to you” behind Nigel Farage as he spoke in the EU parliament. As a result, he says, he gets tweets calling him a “knob”, a “big girl’s blouse” and a “shitbag”, and strangers offering to take him outside. He’s earnest and so upset by Brexit that, at one point, it moves him to tears. Dance has spent six months working on getting a sustainability report passed. We follow him to the crucial vote. Continue reading...

Thursday: Resolution suggests national day could be celebrated on 9 May. Plus, spy’s daughter wants to return to RussiaGood morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 24 May. Continue reading...

Thunderstorms have killed at least five in the mainland US, while fires plague eastern Russia and volcanic activity has been disrupting aviation in HawaiiEastern Russia has been experiencing widespread and intense spring wildfires, thanks to a drier than normal autumn and winter, leading to parched vegetation. As of 17 May, nearly 700 fires had been recorded across 40 territories with about 400 considered extinguished, according to the Russian Federal Forest Agency. As stated by the Global Fire Emissions database, the Amur Oblast region has experienced the most fires per month since 2008. Continue reading...

In a statement, her first since her discharge from hospital, Yulia Skripal, daughter of double agent Sergei, said she wished to return to Russia some day despite the nerve agent attack on her and her father, which she described as life-changing. Yulia told Reuters that her 'life had been turned upside down'. She spent 20 days in a coma after the attack on 4 March, when the Skripals were found comatose on a park bench in Salisbury

Giuseppe Conte respected by friends and colleagues but his parents are a little worriedThe man nominated as Italy’s prime minister may be respected in the legal and academic realms but he is far-removed from the complex, messy world of Italian politics - something that is of mounting concern to his parents.“They are a little worried,” Vittoria Macchiarola, a childhood friend of his mother, told the Guardian. “He is already very important in his career, but look what happens when you get into politics: they throw mud.” Continue reading...

‘Max-fac’ option could result in huge annual hit for firms, according to head of HMRCThe post-Brexit customs model favoured by Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and Michael Gove could cost business as much as £20bn a year, the head of HMRC has said, delivering a huge blow to the Brexiters’ hopes of fully leaving the customs union.Jon Thompson told the Treasury select committee that their preferred “max-fac” model, which relies on technology and trusted trader schemes to minimise border checks, would be substantially more expensive than the alternative. Continue reading...